“Has my leg gone?” Gaza teen’s own horror story

“Is my leg gone?!” was the cry from a distressed Gaza teen whose leg was hanging on by a thread as she was hit by an Israeli strike, Arab News reported on March 6 

17-year-old Ahed, a Gaza City resident, was still in a state of shock whilst being carried to safety by her cousin. 

Since Israel’s pummeling of the enclave on October 7, over 1,000 youths have lost one or multiple of their limbs. It is estimated that 10 children lose one or both legs on a daily basis. 

31,000 have been killed in Gaza in around five months and a starvation crisis is now starting to hit hard with residents often resorting to the consumption of grass and animal feed due to a lack of aid reaching the enclave. 85% of the population have also been internally displaced. 

Ahed was hit by an Israeli tank on December 19 whilst attempting to make a phone call to her father who had been living outside of Palestine for a number of years. 

The teenager said, “I went to the sixth floor (of our building) to call my father, who has been abroad for six years, I wanted to close the curtain in the kitchen because there was an Israeli tank right outside the window. 

“I closed the curtain, sat on the chair, and crossed my legs only to find myself, within a fraction of a second, face down on the floor, unable to move a muscle. The tank hit me.” 

READ: Gaza crisis hits women the hardest

Thankfully her uncle, who is a doctor, lived in the same building and was swift in attempting to heal her wounds.  

Ahed was pulled out of the rubble by her mother and sister and then carried by her cousin to her uncle who tried his best to clean the wound before performing an amputation with a kitchen knife. 

The overwhelming majority of operations performed on the wounded are without the use of anesthetics due to the dire state of healthcare in the enclave.  

Israeli forces have been bombing, mosques, schools, universities, hospitals and residential buildings despite claiming to be strategic in their attacks and only targeting Hamas. 

The Al Shifa Hospital, the main and largest hospital in the territory, has been deemed wholly unfit for purpose for months. 

Ahed lives just a stone’s throw away from Al-Shifa however could not get there for four days due to an Israeli siege on her neighbourhood. 

“I underwent surgery because nothing my uncle used was sterilized, and there was also a serious fracture in my left leg.” Ahed noted. 

Arab News /BBC News/ Save the Children